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Game News Hammer & Sickle demo on 3DGamers

Saint_Proverbius

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Tags: Hammer & Sickle

<a href="http://www.3dgamers.com/news/more/1096483464/">3DGamers</a> has <A href="http://www.3dgamers.com/news/more/1096483464/">the 264MB demo</a> of <A href="http://www.nival.com/hs">Hammer & Sickle</a>. That would be the turn based CRPG made with the <A href="http://www.silentstormonline.com">Silent Storm</a> engine and the Cold War type setting. So, now you guys can give it a whirl and see how close to accurate the below review of the game is.
<br>
<br>
Then again, that review sounded more like they were expecting to shoot everyone to solve every problem.
<br>
 

FrancoTAU

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I'm probably not going to get time this weekend to try it out, but i'd love to hear some feedback on this one from anyone who does try it out.

Especially, if it's a bad translation.
 

Shagnak

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Cool.
Just installed it.

Not so cool: copy protection in the demo that requires a reboot.
And then froze my computer for a bit on restart.

Actual game? We shall see...
 

Balor

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Copy protection in the demo? How stupid is that? :roll:
Anyway, I doubt that a lot of really cool stuff can be fitted into the demo - again, like I said, one of greatest game features is nonlinearity, and it's not readily 'demoable', heh.
 

kumquatq3

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Re: Hammer & Sickle demo on 3DGamers

Saint_Proverbius said:
Then again, that review sounded more like they were expecting to shoot everyone to solve every problem.

After playing the demo, you can get around some problems, but it seems to bottleneck you into combat everytime. Can anyone get the guy out of jail without firing a shot? I can get into the prison, but thats it.
 

Shagnak

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Balor said:
Copy protection in the demo? How stupid is that? :roll:
Anyway, I doubt that a lot of really cool stuff can be fitted into the demo - again, like I said, one of greatest game features is nonlinearity, and it's not readily 'demoable', heh.
More and more demos are doing it. I guess it will become standard one day and paranoids like me pointing it out will become obsolete :)

The first 10 minutes of the demo is mainly linear dialogue. There are occasional dialogue-branch choices. It won't please the complicated-dialogue lovers out there, but will do as far as I'm concerned.
VO seems good enough so far. There are sooo many games that are worse in this area.

One effect in the dialogues that I don't like is the whole "head moving in and out of the screen" effect. It gets very annoying.

This is the only REAL criticism I have so far, but I'm not far in. I'm already thinking I will end up liking it. More later...
 

Screaming_life

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Re: Hammer & Sickle demo on 3DGamers

kumquatq3 said:
Saint_Proverbius said:
Then again, that review sounded more like they were expecting to shoot everyone to solve every problem.

After playing the demo, you can get around some problems, but it seems to bottleneck you into combat everytime. Can anyone get the guy out of jail without firing a shot? I can get into the prison, but thats it.


Yeah i can get in the prison but not been able to get him out without combat.

When i talk to the officer guy in the house i always fail with my ID... and then it says something like "intellect check failed" so i assume if my character had more intelligence it might work.
 

Screaming_life

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Shagnak said:
The first 10 minutes of the demo is mainly linear dialogue. There are occasional dialogue-branch choices. It won't please the complicated-dialogue lovers out there, but will do as far as I'm concerned.
VO seems good enough so far. There are sooo many games that are worse in this area.

One effect in the dialogues that I don't like is the whole "head moving in and out of the screen" effect. It gets very annoying.

The beginning is pretty awfull i think... voices aren't very good - especially that forrester guy and the dialogue is awkward. The "comedy" just doesn't work and i agree the heads moving in and out is annoying - it breaks the flow.

Later though when the jewish guy talks to you about his past.. thats much more interesting.

You do get a few options in dialogue here and there but nothing amazing... but it's nice to have something!

Overall i'm really enjoying it...
 

Stark

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any of the staff planning to do a review?

I'll wait for a codex review before deciding to purchase it or not.
 

Balor

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Well, I'm not Codex? :P
And I'm saying - this game roxx! Well, at least Russian version. And don't expect Planescape: Torment, yet in some areas it's even better, I think.

Oh, and about 'getting Miguel out of prison' - you can. I did in fulll game.
In fact, some places you DO have inavoidable combat, but moer often then not you can talk things over or just sneak past.
 

Balor

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Doh, I mean get him without 'a shot fired', of course.
I didn't fail any intelligence checks, though :).
 

kumquatq3

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Re: Hammer & Sickle demo on 3DGamers

Screaming_life said:
kumquatq3 said:
Saint_Proverbius said:
Then again, that review sounded more like they were expecting to shoot everyone to solve every problem.

After playing the demo, you can get around some problems, but it seems to bottleneck you into combat everytime. Can anyone get the guy out of jail without firing a shot? I can get into the prison, but thats it.


Yeah i can get in the prison but not been able to get him out without combat.

When i talk to the officer guy in the house i always fail with my ID... and then it says something like "intellect check failed" so i assume if my character had more intelligence it might work.

You can strangle that guy to get his uniform. Use that + the other american uniform you have to get at least 2 guys into the prison. No way to open the gates yourself, there seems to be a random trigger that makes the prisoners "jump", by "jump" I mean "get killed by", the guards.

It took alot of work, but I freed the guy and kept him alive. There seems to be more demo after that, but I got a little fatigued.

So far the demo is no more an RPG than SS was
 

Psilon

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Shagnak said:
Not so cool: copy protection in the demo that requires a reboot.
And then froze my computer for a bit on restart.
Well, fuck that then. Copy protection's bad enough on a demo. Requiring a reboot in order to install new drivers is inexcusable.
 

Lemon

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Writing and voice acting is quite decent. Turn length seems like one of the lingering SS issues though.
 

FrancoTAU

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I guess translation isn't a problem than. So the gamespy reviewer is just a jackass with a short attention span?
 

kumquatq3

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Lemon said:
Writing and voice acting is quite decent. Turn length seems like one of the lingering SS issues though.

It's still and issue, but I really think it has been improved. It was intolerable at times in SS.
 

Jinxed

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I got the guy out on my second try with the id. The main character's int is 4 and that's pretty low.

I installed the demo and no reboot for me. But I must say the graphics seem to be more taxing than ss even though they don't look better, hah, they even look a bit worse. The game should look pretty well on 1600x1200 but it still requires a lot of AA to look good. Also, occasionally the outside of the maps would turn bright blue instead of black. Kinda annoying. I think they sort of changed the skill tree, I don't remember an ability called "rambo" in SS. The combat music is kinda weird. Considering this is a WWII themed game it's weird having heavy metal in it. Then again, those ambients could get so repeative. I guess it's a case of getting used to it.

Don't expect too much from this game. It resembles more of a hack job than anything. No new motion capture, or models. Like when they brought that guy from prison to me, said that he should be handcuffed and he was free when he walked in. It would be a crime to ask 50$ for this game. Even the beginning is spartan like, characters kneeling down in front of a fire the same way they do during a fight. It's clearly a mod.
 

Crichton

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-voice-acting is slightly better than SS (still terrible compared to high-production value games, but you can always turn the sound off)

-dialogue is poorly written or poorly translated, though again still better than SS

-story in the demo is nonsense, but it's a demo

-combat seems to be somewhat better than SS (hiding is toned down somewhat, custom difficulty settings are cool, sadly AI is still pretty dumb)

-generally less polished and more glitchy than SS

SPOILER STORY QUESTIONS:






-If the american's boss has been killed, insteading of taking orders from someone in a different army (which is of course, treason), why doesn't she phone/radio the next person in her chain of command and find out what his orders are? For that matter, what's a female american doing in a non-WAAC army uniform carrying a rifle?

-If we're in one of the allied occupation zones, why doesn't the american go talk to the authorities? and why does she disguise herself?

-If we're in the russian occupation zone, why doesn't the russian talk to the authorities? and why does he make that silly "so deep into germany" comment like the russians aren't occupying a third of it?

-What langauge is everyone supposed to be speaking? It should be german, but if that's the case, why do the charecters not understand the kid's simple yiddish (which was perfectly intelligable to me, as it woudl be to any other german speaker; more complicated yiddish is a different matter)

-Why does Nival insist on that stupid "men in strange uniforms are trying to kill everyone!" plotline? It was childish last time too. HAIL HYDRA! CUT OFF ONE HEAD AND TWO WILL GROW BACK IN ITS PLACE. WE SERVE THE MASTER AS THE WORLD WILL SOON SERVE US. HAIL HYDRA! (Are 1960's comic books popular reading at nival?)
 

fizzelopeguss

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Balor said:
Copy protection in the demo? How stupid is that?.

Crackers can use files from the demo to figure out how to break the copy protection on the retail version, this is usually for starforce games though, does the full ver happen to use that protection?
 

Balor

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-If the american's boss has been killed, insteading of taking orders from someone in a different army (which is of course, treason), why doesn't she phone/radio the next person in her chain of command and find out what his orders are? For that matter, what's a female american doing in a non-WAAC army uniform carrying a rifle?

This question is VERY spoilerific, indeed. Let's just say it's all VERY reasonably explaned in the game itself.

-If we're in one of the allied occupation zones, why doesn't the american go talk to the authorities? and why does she disguise herself?
See above.

-If we're in the russian occupation zone, why doesn't the russian talk to the authorities? and why does he make that silly "so deep into germany" comment like the russians aren't occupying a third of it?
It's not Russian occupation zone - it's US occupation zone. See above.

-What langauge is everyone supposed to be speaking? It should be german, but if that's the case, why do the charecters not understand the kid's simple yiddish (which was perfectly intelligable to me, as it woudl be to any other german speaker; more complicated yiddish is a different matter)

Well, question is, I NEVER met that jewish guy in my playthough, so I cannot even understand what are you talkig about. I did hear that he's a sniper, and that's all.

-Why does Nival insist on that stupid "men in strange uniforms are trying to kill everyone!" plotline? It was childish last time too. HAIL HYDRA! CUT OFF ONE HEAD AND TWO WILL GROW BACK IN ITS PLACE. WE SERVE THE MASTER AS THE WORLD WILL SOON SERVE US. HAIL HYDRA! (Are 1960's comic books popular reading at nival?)

Men in strange uniforms? :lol:
Well, in one funnier things to H&S storyline ;).
Again, better play the full game to find this out.
 

Jinxed

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Well, I killed all the policemen in the city, and the army of american soldiers that show up to help them, (it wasn't easy on normal, actually, quite hard) and then on the way to the prison or the forest cabin, that american bitch betrayed me and left me to handle another fucking army that are out for my blood. Damn, I want this game. :D
 

Lemon

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Jinxed said:
Well, I killed all the policemen in the city, and the army of american soldiers that show up to help them, (it wasn't easy on normal, actually, quite hard) and then on the way to the prison or the forest cabin, that american bitch betrayed me and left me to handle another fucking army that are out for my blood. Damn, I want this game. :D

Really :o I need to try that out.
 

Jinxed

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Hey Balor, what do you say to this review on Gamesfirst?

It's not every day that a decent role-playing game comes out, and it's even rarer when a decent turn-based RPG hits store shelves. Not since the days of the legendary Fallout series have we seen a GREAT turn-based RPG. Ah, those were the days.

The dream of having a Fallout-level turn-based RPG with next- or even current-generation graphics is still unanswered, unfortunately, but Hammer & Sickle at least does a decent job. The main problem with Hammer & Sickle is its own publishers' press, which makes promises for Hammer & Sickle that the developers can't/couldn't deliver.

In Hammer & Sickle, gamers assume the role of a Soviet commando sent behind enemy lines in Western Germany. However, in Hammer & Sickle's manual, he's billed as a "top Soviet spy" who "attempts to prevent a nuclear showdown between the world's superpowers." Not only does he not do any spying in Hammer & Sickle, he has no option but to blend in with the locals and wait for orders after his intelligence center is hit by terrorists.

I could be wrong about him being a "top Soviet spy," but the evidence argues against it. He admits to being a soldier in Hammer and Sickle's intro, and his first real mission is taking out a group of U.S. soldiers by force. Lastly, he's packing grenades. GRENADES! What spy carries fragmentation explosives? I never saw that in a Bond movie.

Another grievous error in Hammer & Sickle's manual is the actual worry of a "nuclear showdown" in the first place. Unless I'm misrepresenting history here, the Soviets didn't have nukes in 1949. Oh sure, we did, but the Soviets were still developing the technology. In fact, in Hammer & Sickle's final cutscene, only the U.S. uses nukes.

However, my main beef with Hammer & Sickle's press is the promise of "six specialty classes" and the ability to "completely customize your character's appearance, skills," etc. As for the character classes, there are only four: the soldier, the sniper, the scout and the grenadier. How about a fifth character class: the spy?

The only thing about your character you can customize is his head. Not his sex, not his body type, not even his weight. I don't know about you, but I would've loved to be able to play through the game as an aging, heavy-set female.

As for the actual role-playing aspects of Hammer & Sickle, there's little to engage the hardcore stat nerd. You update your character's skills in a tree of selections that only give you a skill and don't let you upgrade it any farther. For example, you'll get a skill called "Rambo" (I kid you not) that lets you carry heavy weapons in the ready position while running. Not only do you not get to increase the skill anymore after you earn it, it's not even useful. If you don't have the Rambo skill, you can still carry/use heavy weapons!

Then there's the matter of difficulty in Hammer & Sickle. Let me put it simply, Hammer & Sickle is nigh impossible to beat – on easy difficulty! Fortunately, there's an option called "Custom Difficulty" that should be in every game where you can adjust things like the enemy's VP (health), AP (number of actions per turn) and accuracy, as well as your own, on a sliding scale. Call me the world's worst gamer, but I cranked down the enemy's settings and cranked up my own, making Hammer & Sickle playable – and, more importantly, fun.

The simple fact is, there is a fun game hidden underneath all of the aforementioned problems. Hammer & Sickle is really a cool little game. It has a lot going for it.

First of all, there just aren't many turn-based RPGs out there these days. You have Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I and II. Neverwinter Nights is a single character game, and you don't really get to control a decent-sized squad in regular in-game action in KOTOR. By the end of Hammer & Sickle it's possible to have six guys under your control.

The way you fill out your squad is interesting, too. You aren't sent over the border between Eastern and Western Germany with a group of guys, but have to earn them. When I say earn them, I really mean EARN them.

The first character you can have join your group is introduced to you in front of a firing squad. She's an American paratrooper named Elisabeth Sanders who came over to Germany after landing in France. Naturally, after she was shot by the firing squad, she wasn't killed. She was merely put into a state of shock. Your character carries her into the nearby building where, conveniently, there's a doctor who nurses her back to health. This takes one day (WTF?). She then hires herself as a mercenary to your character for $150/week.

The second character who can join your squad is working for a gun dealer you're sent to kill. You get Larry (who has a weird German last name), a former member of the Nazi Youth Movement, if you decide to join up with this gun dealer. The shadier gamers (and lazier, since taking out this gun dealer is tough – he has some major backing by bandits) will have to backstab the character who sent them on this mission to get Larry, but more importantly, will miss out on earning a really cool French submachine gun. Getting Larry is really up to you in the end.

The third character is the hardest to earn, but he's definitely the coolest. Fidel "Gambusino" Sanchez is a former member of the Red Army who fought on the side of your character in Hammer & Sickle. He's captured by the British and put into a military prison. Naturally, to free him you have to break him out of prison. This is the single hardest mission in the game, but is worth it to hear Sanchez's reaction to seeing your character again ("Madre de dios!").

The last three characters to join your squad are awarded to you for getting to the end of the game, and basically starting World War III. Now, if you're doing your math here, you'll notice that this adds up to seven characters altogether, including your character. Well, not to spoil anything, one of the characters you meet is a traitor. This is another cool aspect of the game: your sense of surprise at this point.

Turn-based gameplay, for the uninitiated, is rather simple. As the name implies, it involves the enemy taking a turn with attacks, then the player taking a turn, repeat ad nauseum until someone's team is all dead. Unfortunately, if there's any, and I mean, ANY enemies left in the map anywhere, you have to track them down and kill them. This can get frustrating and difficult because oftentimes the character is hiding somewhere they can shoot the crap out of the first guy who finds them. This results in many cheap deaths and reloading of save games. Fortunately, it makes you use strategy when hunting these guys down. Here's a tip: Never underestimate the ability to lie prone and crawl up to bad guys. They're usually taken by surprise when someone peeks around the corner of their hiding space at ground level. And then, blowing someone's head off from two feet away is always thrilling, especially when it isn't a character you control.

Hammer & Sickle also features a really sweet "Loot" option for when you finally do clear the map of enemies. Make sure you take the time to click this button on the top of the screen before you leave an area. You get all of the items they've dropped listed in categories for easy taking. If you do this right, you may never have to buy guns or ammo in the game at all. And that is sweet.

Hammer & Sickle, in the end, is hurt the most by its own publishers. A lot of cool features are promised in the game, but they're either not there at all or seriously stripped down. Still, turn-based RPG fans who have played Fallout, Neverwinter Nights and both KOTORs to death should check out Hammer & Sickle.

I like it when he calls Kotor and NWN turn based. His gripe about the difficulty is also funny.
 

merry andrew

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The last three characters to join your squad are awarded to you for getting to the end of the game, and basically starting World War III. Now, if you're doing your math here, you'll notice that this adds up to seven characters altogether, including your character. Well, not to spoil anything, one of the characters you meet is a traitor. This is another cool aspect of the game: your sense of surprise at this point.
hahahahahahaha what?
 

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